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Syria troops push back in fight on Damascus edges

President Bashar Assad's regime is intensifying its assault aimed at crushing army defectors and protesters.

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Syrian forces heavily shelled the restive city of Homs on Monday and troops pushed back dissident troops from some suburbs on the outskirts of Damascus in an offensive trying to regain control of the capital's eastern doorstep, activists said.

President Bashar Assad's regime is intensifying its assault aimed at crushing army defectors and protesters, even as the West tries to overcome Russian opposition and win a new UN resolution against Syria's crackdown on the 10-month-old uprising. Activists reported at least 28 civilians killed today.

Russia insists it won't support any resolution that could enable foreign military intervention in Syria. Instead, it said today it is seeking to mediate talks in Moscow between Damascus and the opposition.

It said Assad's government has agreed to participate. The opposition has in the past rejected any negotiations unless violence stops, and there was no immediate word whether any of the multiple groups that make up the anti-Assad camp would attend.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron's office urged Moscow to reconsider its stance. "Russia can no longer explain blocking the UN and providing cover for the regime's brutal repression," a spokesperson for Cameron said, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy.

The British and French foreign ministers were heading to New York for UN talks set for tomorrow as they and Arab countries push for a resolution backing an Arab League peace plan.

The proposal calls for Assad to hand his powers over to his vice-president and allow the creation of a unity government. Damascus has rejected the proposal.

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